Still thinking about the lack of persecution of American Christianity. Mentioned this to some friends recently and received a "yeah, but persecution isn't something you should seek." That may be true, but since the bible says it's a gift from God (Phil. 1:29), it's a bit odd that we have so little. Gotta go catch the bus...

I found the coolest thing on Johnny Baker's blog. It's an animation called 'flyguy'--check it out!

Laura's Mind is officially linked on ginkworld! Cool...

(It's listed as Torrance First Baptist, though... I'll probably change that...)

Last night, during our study of 2 Timothy 3:10-17, a disturbing question came up. If it is true, that everyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (v 12), why is the American church generally free from persecution? Now I’m not narrowing this to governmental persecution, but persecution in general. Why is it that for the most part, American Christians are so comfortable? Just looking around at the culture, I do not think a Christian-friendly culture is the reason for this lack of persecution. Could it be that we place too much value on culture and not enough value on God’s words? Could it be that we are more concerned with a pleasant earthly experience than we are with pleasing our heavenly Father? Frankly, a few other statements in chapter three sound a bit too familiar: holding to a form of godliness while denying its power (v 5), and always learning yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth (v 7). Obviously, this has to do with real life, not a bunch of sentences on paper, so what does it look like when a Christian, who happens to be an actor, begins to desire to live godly? What does it look like when a Christian, who happens to be a salesperson, begins to desire to live godly? What does it look like when a Christian, who happens to be a student or engineer or teacher, begins to desire to live godly? According to Paul, persecution happens.

Tonight we start a communal style bible study (patterned after Intervarsity) in the Young Adult Ministry at TFB. Last summer, we did something like this, but with a bit less interaction in the interpretation phase. I am both excited and nervous. Excited because together, we will look to the Word for truth. Nervous because it's a bit risky. There is very little plan--only road signs, like 'individual time' and 'sharing observations'. The content relies entirely on the students... cool, but risky. It's worth the risk, though.

More later...

I just realized school starts in two weeks... alright so I think I'm starting to get used to not having a January class.